Category: Something Fishy

We have revisited this topic once every couple of years as we continue to receive email fisherman who don’t think they were treated fairly by the guide they booked for a Striper fishing trip on Lake Texoma. The biggest issue is centered around the use of phrases of terms “Guaranteed Catch”, “Catch fish or your money back.

Do a Web Search for Lake Texoma Striper Guide and you will find results in the Sponsored links section.

Doing a search on on the web on either Google or Yahoo using differently phrased inquiries looking for a Lake Texoma striper fishing guide and then look at the Sponsored Links you will find more phrases such as:
* “Guaranties fish or your next trip is free”
* “Guaranteed Catch”
* “Catch fish or your money back”
* “We catch fish. Guaranteed”

Before you book a trip ensure you are getting what you understand exactly what the terms of your booking and you will receive to make sure you have a fun fulled day fishing. Be sure to ask questions such as “What does Guarantee to catch Fish” mean.

Not to say that the guides using these sales pitches aren’t very good guides and that you won’t catch fish, most are excellent guides, but…. understand that fish is used as the singular and plural tenses, ie.. “Wooohooo, I caught a fish.”, “We had fun and caught a box full of fish”.

We have been told of of guides who on bad fishing days, holding customers to the guarantee once they caught “ONE” fish.

We also know of some guides that are true to their word and will take you out another time if fishing is so bad you spend 5-6 hours and only catch a one or a couple fish. Some guides also will re-fish you at a reduced price.

Also be sure to ask about the time you are allotted to fish. Most guides specify this on their web sites and will tell you if asked. Ask what happens should you catch your limit in an hour and you would like to fish some more. Some will whisk you immediately back to the marina, others will take you catfishing, etc. Once you have caught your limit of stripers most won’t let you keep fishing for them, but there can be alternatives.

Another area to ask is if you will be fishing with the advertised guide. Some guides are multi-guide operations and will publish who their guides are. Others are one man operations and the guide on the site is the one you will be fishing with, however there are some who use part time guides as fill ins. The part time guides may or may not have an excellent knowledge of the lake. We have heard many stories of part time guides who don’t really care how the trip goes as they are not the one you are paying and they figure they will never see you again anyways, The point we are trying to stress is that you should know who you are paying to fish with and not be blind sided at the dock.

Take your time and look at several of the guide’s web sites , don’t be afraid to go 2-3 pages deep in the search (the above term resulted in “about 25,000 results”). There are numerous guides that don’t do the Sponsored Link program that are excellent guides but for one reason or another choose not to advertise as a Sponsored Link. Make calls or email the guides. They will be happy to talk to you about their services.

Remember you are the customer and as any other purchase you make, know what you are getting before you get in the boat.

If you would like a referral to a guide we would pay to go fishing with, email us at laketexomadesigns@yahoo.com and we will help you get your trip booked.

Lake Texoma water temperature is 58-61 degrees and lake elevation is 608.67. Striper fishing for the start of 2014 has produced some really nice fish.Although were not into the feeding frenzy yet we are seeing some big fish being caught this month. Stripers are stacked from north island to west of the Hwy 377 bridge.

Our biggest challenge the past few weeks has been the weather mainly big wind.I’m fishing live bait working flats and ledges in depths from 15-50 ft. of water. Stripers are also being caught with the Alabama rigs working ledges and structure or simply trolling them along the flats. I’ve had some great trips this spring only to go out and struggle for bites the following day and until our stripers spawn feeding is not real high on their priority list.

I can say things are picking up almost daily a lot of fish over the slot being caught when you get into them.By months end we should be into our prime time striper fishing with a good amount of numbers being caught.

Weekends are filling fast and are the first to go.If your thinking about booking a trip on Texoma now is the time.

Lake Texoma striper fishing the past several weeks hasn’t changed a whole lot. Lots of hungry stripers still staged in the 40-60 ft. of water. Seagulls are working in several different areas and producing nice boxes of stripers on our morning and afternoon trips. Lake Texoma elevation is 611.85 and water temperature is 52 degrees.

Most of the trips I’ve had the past few weeks I’ve fished live bait with a little lure fishing in between. I’ve had days where you can sit on anchor and the stripers will feed until you move or simply run thru all the bait. Other days they seem to be working the deeper water ledges and you basically have to chase them down catch a few and repeat the process.

With the current cold snap, I would have to say the month of January will by far be one of the best months for larger stripers on Lake Texoma. As healthy as our stripers were coming out of the hot summer months I think we are going to see some really good Lake Texoma stripers this winter.

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and a joyous Holiday Season. With the holidays upon us, find yourself a little time to come out and experience Beautiful Lake Texoma.

Have a Happy New Year. Stay safe and enjoy some great fishing on Lake Texoma.

This past October was another great month for Lake Texoma striper fishing. We had our yearly Great White Hunt with Entech on the October 13th. We had 174 fisherman, 36 guides our catering service for the fish fry not to mention a lot of great help. Thanks to everyone that participated.

As we move into the middle of November our striper fishing is outstanding.Lake elevation is 612.97 and water temperature is 66 degrees. The sea gulls have moved in by the thousands which helps to locate the feeding stripers. I’m still fishing mainly live bait and fishing the shallow flats drifting or anchor fishing the river channel ledges in 40-55 ft. of water.

Morning and afternoon trips we’ve had very good action and starting to see some larger stripers. As far as lure fishing the ghost minnow slabs, sassy shad, cojo minnow and topwater has all worked well fishing with the sea gulls.

It’s a great time to fish Lake Texoma with the stripers feeding heavily,cooler temperatures and beautiful fall color it makes for a great day. Don’t get too caught up in the action. Make sure to measure your stripers as we are starting to see a lot of fish in the 20” range.

Our Lake Texoma limit is 10 stripers 2 over 20” inches your other 8 have to be under 20”. Be safe and come out to enjoy Beautiful Lake Texoma

Lake Texoma lake elevation is 617.08 and water temperature is 78-81 degrees. The Lake Texoma striper fishing over the past several weeks has been really good. The larger fish which have spawned are back and are hungry and aggressive. I’m still using live bait fishing mainly deep water (60-80ft) and still working deep water ledges,ditches and humps.

Lake Texoma elevation is 618.03 and water temperature is 68 degrees. With the mild winter, warmer water temperature and the lake level above normal, I believe that the Lake Texoma striper fishing for 2012 looks to be extremely good. I have mainly fished north of Highport the past couple weeks working river channel ledges from 30-55 feet of water using live bait. Threadfin shad are about as thick as I’ve ever seen them and have already started their spawn along the boat houses and main lake areas along the rocky banks.

Lake Texoma elevation is 618.03 and water temperature is 68 degrees. With the mild winter, warmer water temperature and the lake level above normal, I believe that the Lake Texoma striper fishing for 2012 looks to be extremely good. I have mainly fished north of Highport the past couple weeks working river channel ledges from 30-55 feet of water using live bait. Threadfin shad are about as thick as I’ve ever seen them and have already started their spawn along the boat houses and main lake areas along the rocky banks.

Lake Texoma elevation is 615.86 and water temperature is 52 degrees. Lake Texoma winter fishing continues to produce good sized stripers and an occasional double digit fish. We have also had some pretty tough days in between. Although you have a better chance at landing a trophy striper this time of year, it’s not a daily occurrence. This past two weeks I’ve noticed as I fillet fish that the bellies aren’t packed full of bait. The month of January the stripers on Lake Texoma were feeding daily and had bellies full of fresh bait. Now it seems the feed is every couple days which is normal for this time of year.

With the high temperatures and the blue/green algae problem, September was not a very good month for us on Lake Texoma. As we moved into October the fishing really picked up. We started the first Saturday in October with our yearly Great White Hunt Trip. We had 160 anglers,3 6 guides, a catering service for the fish fry and alot of great help. Thanks to everyone who participated, it was a huge success. Our Lake Texoma water temperature is 67 degrees lake elevation is 609.85 (7.33 low).